Queens small businesses only got 9% of the city's SBS relief fund

Gothamist

While the outer boroughs have been disproportionately hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, small businesses in Manhattan have gotten the majority of assistance from the city.

According to the city's Small Business Services agency on Wednesday, around $8 million of the $20 million loan program for struggling small businesses has been disbursed, with 66 percent going to Manhattan-based shops. Bronx business owners have received less than one percent—around $80,000—while those in Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island have received 18 percent, 9 percent, and 5 percent, respectively.

The figures, revealed by the SBS commissioner Gregg Bishop during a New York City Council Small Business Committee hearing on Wednesday, agitated chair and Bronx Councilmember Mark Gjonaj.

“One percent of the loans went to the borough of the Bronx and 66% went to Manhattan?” Gjonaj asked . “And we know that most of these small businesses exist in the outer boroughs, so already we see a huge disparity here on how these loans are being [disbursed].”

The program is part of a $49 million loan and grant program created by the de Blasio administration to serve as a lifeline to businesses struggling to remain open after the pandemic—$10 million in loans and $39 million in grants.

Of the $39 million in grants, $29 million has been disbursed; 3 percent has gone to Bronx and Staten Island businesses respectively, 16 percent to businesses in Queens, 25 percent to shops in Brooklyn, and 53 percent to businesses in Manhattan.

IBZ funding nixed

From Crains:

Mayor Bill de Blasio's budget proposal eliminates a $1.1 million allocation for industrial business zones, a decision that did not shock those familiar with the program but casts doubt on the new administration's approach to preserving manufacturing jobs in the outer boroughs.

In 2006, former Mayor Michael Bloomberg designated 16 industrial business zones across the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island. The thrust of the plan was to keep industrial and manufacturing businesses operating in the city by using tax credits and city funding and to signal that the areas would not be rezoned for residential or other uses.

But the roughly $4 million budgeted that first year for IBZs has steadily decreased. Nothing was set aside in Mr. Bloomberg's final budget, but then-Councilwoman Diana Reyna shoehorn $1.1 million back into the city's 2014 financial plan. The money paid for the Department of Small Business Services to provide consulting for industrial businesses. EDC also has three staffers helping manufacturers, funded out of the agency's own budget.

Many of the program's supporters, including Ms. Reyna, who is now deputy borough president of Brooklyn, are still advocating for the IBZs. "We want the mayor's office to really re-commit to this program," she said. "This program needs an office and a head of OIMB that reports directly to the mayor. The Brooklyn Navy Yard has a wait list for new businesses looking for space. There is interest here."

Responding to that interest and growing manufacturing jobs would seem to be a natural fit for Mr. de Blasio, who campaign on a platform of economic opportunity for working-class New Yorkers. A spokeswoman for the city's Department of Small Business Services said in statement to Crain's that a litany of free services are available to businesses in industrial areas and "Mayor de Blasio's budget reflects his administration's values, which include preserving and growing the manufacturing sector as a key element of his economic development policy."

But by removing the last vestiges of funding from the program, the new mayor is indicating that his administration is at the very least rethinking its approach to industrial business growth. Since Mr. Hum's departure, the responsibilities of the IBZ program have been shared by a number of city agencies, none of which could confirm their number of IBZ employees.

Thought you might like to see the mayor's campaign promise on this issue:

Help Manufacturing Thrive in New York City: Bill de Blasio believes manufacturing 2.0 can be a critical part of the city economy and will build on existing programs to preserve the physical integrity of Industrial Business Zones, stop illegal conversions of industrial areas, and support better infrastructure and workforce development planning. He will replicate the success of the Brooklyn Navy Yard in other industrial areas owned and managed by the city.

So much for that.

Fixup planned for B116th Street

From the Daily News:

The city plans to pump $500,000 into a vital shopping strip in Rockaway in an effort to overhaul blighted and storm-torn storefronts.

Merchants along Beach 116th St. — a gateway to the beach — will have access to grants for new awnings, signs and other improvements, officials said.

Deputy Mayor Robert Steel is expected to make the announcement Wednesday during a visit to Rockaway.

City Small Business Services Commissioner Robert Walsh said various city agencies are pitching in with planters, benches and better lighting to freshen up the strip.

Beach 116th St. has long struggled with shuttered shops and panhandlers from nearby halfway houses.

Many of the small business owners were hit doubly hard during Superstorm Sandy, suffering damage to their shops and homes.

Filthy nabes get BID director fired

From the NY Post:

BID boss Sharada Devi was recently canned from her $45,000-a-year job overseeing a district in Jackson Heights and Elmhurst after a City Council member complained about graffiti, garbage and neglect along Roosevelt Avenue and 82nd Street, the BID’s central corridors.

“These are not entitlement jobs,” warned Small Business Commissioner Rob Walsh. “I oversee the BID program, and I was embarrassed.

“It was unacceptable. There was just such neglect. Blatant neglect.”

Like the other 65 special zones around New York, the district charges local businesses extra fees that are supposed to fund improvements that, in turn, help draw shoppers and new companies to an area.

But Walsh said Devi’s BID, with an annual budget of $230,000, had broken and empty planters and torn awnings, and needed a good sweeping.

And he vowed to have a new board and executive director in place within 100 days.

How many agencies does it take to raise a boat?

From the Queens Gazette:

State Senator Joseph Addabbo and his staff thought they were addressing a simple problem this past March when a local resident asked if a seemingly abandoned single-engine motorboat could be removed from Hawtree Basin near Coleman Square. The “simple” problem took four months and ultimately involved six different governmental agencies before a city Department of Transportation (DOT) crew removed the derelict craft from the basin on Tuesday, July 27, with Addabbo on the scene to witness the boat’s successful lift out of the water.

The saga of the derelict craft began on March 26, when a constituent called Addabbo’s office to report an abandoned boat could be seen from his house in nearby Hawtree Basin in Howard Beach. Addabbo and his staff initially contacted the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to begin the removal process and to discuss possible environmental issues with regard to the boat situation.

Addabbo’s office also contacted Frank Carnesi, Director of Security of the Dockmaster Unit of the city Department of Small Business Services, who assisted in contacting the NYPD Harbor Unit to ascertain who owned the boat. The Harbor Unit visited the site twice to trace the boat’s registration numbers and to make the decision that their harbor boat was unable to remove the abandoned boat due to the shallow water of the basin.

Throughout April and May, Addabbo and the agencies tried to locate the boat’s owner. After numerous, ultimately futile attempts, a decision was made that the boat was abandoned and must be removed.

Well, he sounds qualified...

From the Sunnyside Post:

Sunnyside Shines, a local business improvement district (BID), has hired 23-year-old James Bray as its new executive director.

Bray, who has just completed his studies at Rutgers University, will head the Sunnyside BID that has an annual budget of approximately $300,000 per year. The Jersey City resident will be the only full-time executive working for the public/private group.

The BID’s role is to promote business in Sunnyside. Its function is particularly important right now as a slew of businesses are struggling to survive. In recent months many businesses have closed, from Sugar & Joe, Flynn’s Pub, Sleepys, Nourish and Curves.

Bray, who said he knew “nothing about Queens” before joining the BID, was hired as a part-time worker in November to help Sunnyside Shines with is computer and network problems.

He was able to get the part-time job through his father Thomas Bray, who reports to John Vogt, the regional director at White Castle. Vogt is the chairman of Sunnyside Shines.

Thomas Bray and Vogt have worked together at White Castle for years. “They hang out all day at 34th Ave [White Castle],” James Bray said. “I used to see him at our BBQs.”

Vogt, a Lindenhurst resident, is also the chairman of the Sunnyside Chamber of Commerce and a board member on Woodside on the Move.

This will be Bray’s first executive role. He has worked as a Hillsborough Township Volunteer Firefighter in his hometown of Hillsborough, NJ, and has helped provide before- and after-school child care to working families for Catholic Charities. He also worked at Lowes Home Improvement, where he sold grills and other outdoor products.

Bray, who is being paid $41,600 (without healthcare), said that he brings a “fresh perspective to the job.” Many people in Sunnyside’s local organizations have been here a long time, he said.

The New York City Department of Small Business Services (SBS) is the lead agency responsible for BID creation and oversight.